The course, now in its 35th edition, was established to respond to the need for ongoing redevelopment in consecrated life and in the diocesan clergy so as to offer an integral, spiritual and pedagogical formation to those who are committed and work in this area.
Plenty of multicultural and charismatic resources available: 65 participants enrolled in this edition, of 31 different male and female congregations, and 2 diocesan (one of which was of Greek Catholic rite), coming from 34 nationalities of all five continents. 16 of them were Salesian confreres from different regions of the Congregation.
From the very first days, the group was characterized by joviality and mutual trust, the desire to really get involved, be challenged; with trust and effort, they accepted the proposals of the teachers (also from all over the world) of the various courses: a multidisciplinary refresher course that addressed and fully explored all the essential dimensions to form consecrated persons and priests at the cutting edge of present and future times: spiritual, biblical/theological, anthropological (psycho-sociological-cultural), ecclesial/charismatic and pedagogical/experiential dimensions.
A young tightrope walker trying to walk on a rope suspended in midair was the image that accompanied the formators along the way: "The image of balance helps us understand that the formative path is a path towards stability, but understood as a constant search for it, through the care of our emotions and sensibility," said course director Fr Carlo Maria Zanotti. In fact, among the objectives announced from the beginning was of retraining the formators by having them work on themselves with the aim of an authentic spiritual renewal and pedagogical updating. A permanent and ongoing formation course to revive the gift of the call to consecrated and priestly life.
A peculiar edition, in these times of the pandemic. Despite the inconvenience caused by the lockdown rules to contain Covid-19 imposed by the Italian health authorities, the course was however carried out almost regularly. After initially being at a loss on how to proceed due to the lockdown, they soon got organized, continuing the courses online. Unfortunately, some had to return early to their home countries, but most formators followed the courses until the end.
This, too, is formative: resilience is knowing how to cope with the unexpected and in any case achieving the objectives set, despite everything, even learning from the difficulties that reality poses. However, the experiential aspects that most characterize this formation course (the week of fraternity, the pilgrimage to Assisi and visits to formative and monastic communities), experiences much-waited for by formators and organizers had to be reluctantly renounced.
The formators "have as their main mission to transmit to the people entrusted to them the beauty of following the Lord" (For new wine in new wineskins, 16); those who have participated in this course can joyfully testify that this is indeed the case, and that this is achieved above all through many brothers and sisters, in the richness of the charisms of the Church.
Fr Lorenzo Piola, SDB
